Category Archives: social media

Top 10 Reasons to Follow Your Realtor on Twitter

Forget the newspaper! If you’re looking to buy a home or sell your property, start following your favorite realtor on Twitter. Through this hugely popular social media site, he can post short, timely messages about a wide variety of topics to help you find the perfect home or sell your house quickly and painlessly.

A savvy real estate agent actively tweets and engages with his followers and possesses a deep knowledge of the market in all the major regions in your city. He’ll also be someone you want to work with who isn’t just interested in self-promotion, but who regularly posts helpful tips and informative content to help you learn about all aspects involved in buying or selling a home.

Here are 10 great reasons to follow your realtor on Twitter.

1. Benefit from helpful, informative content including blogs, articles and videos
2. Get up-to-the-minute news about available properties, open houses and upcoming events
3. Hear from industry experts about the ins and outs of buying real estate
4. Join conversations regarding real estate news, issues and more
5. See photos of available properties
6. Gain access to stories related to real estate in your favorite areas and beyond
7. Learn about neighborhoods you like and the surrounding communities
8. Discover new trends and hot topics including mortgage rates, buyer’s and seller’s markets, and staging your home for potential buyers
9. Become knowledgeable about the full gamut of investing in real estate, from discounted properties to luxury homes
10. Find out about renovations and upgrades that can increase the value of your home

Tips for Selling Real Estate Using Youtube

A huge driving force in the evolution of real estate sites right now is Web 2.0. Real estate websites have transformed from the traditional information driven brochures to efficient business tools. The average agent’s role is expected to expand in terms of technology and the many investors, developers, agents, and brokers will begin to see the real value of their websites. Home buyers are now able to pursue many homes through the internet before they even hit the streets with the realtors. This makes selling real estate more efficient and convenient as well.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then how much more a video? People are viewing around two billion videos on social media sites such as Facebook and Youtube. Videos help create a more personal connection to the viewers and this is precisely what many sellers need. Video marketing has the potential to increase revenue to your business, amplify your reputation & credibility, and build better relationships. With the help of today’s technological innovations, it is easier to capture and produce a great real estate marketing video to sell a home. For Realtors and investors who want to take advantage of Youtube, here are easy tips that will help you attract more buyers to your houses.

Plan your YouTube marketing strategy. Do not just shoot video tours randomly and then post in on Youtube. You have to let your customers and site visitors know who you are and where to locate your house. This includes your video tours as well. Take advantage of the editing features and annotate your video with text that highlights the great features of your home.

Create a channel: It is easy to set up a new YouTube channel and promote yourself with great colors, promotional text and feature your videos. This will also solidify your brand identity and help potential buyers identify with you.

Capture home tour vignettes for your home buyers. You can begin by shooting on a nice day. Turn the lights on and let the home sell itself. Even before you start shooting and capturing videos, make sure you list some of the key features for each property. No two homes are the same so make sure you include all the areas that are relevant to home buyers. Feature the home’s curb appeal and other highlights. If you wish to speak behind the background, make sure you keep it short and direct to the point. Don’t forget to put your name and contact number at the end of the clip. Give viewers the option to visit your site for additional information.

Cover your community’s events. This is a great way for you to position yourself as an authority in your neighborhood. The one who has the microphone is usually the one who is believed to be the expert. You can cover a picnic celebration, school fundraisers and even parades. Try to interview dignitaries, teachers, neighbors and other people in your community. This is also an awesome way for you to showcase the neighborhood’s best highlights such as the park, wide roads, and friendly people.

Feature real estate tips. Give away videos about ‘home buying tips’, ‘investing tips’, ‘lease to own tips’ and so much more. Select ideas which can be recorded for around thirty seconds worth of video clip. You may also feature home selling tips that you can share to other sellers. Do a series of 2 to 4 minute videos that explain how short sales work, how to purchase houses and other options to sell their properties.

Introduce your team players. As a real estate investor, you can also interview some of the key people in your team and find out the things that they do. This will allow potential buyers to connect to your team.

Create client video testimonials. What better way to sell yourself than having your clients testify on how helpful and invaluable you were during the process of purchasing or selling a home. Prepare three to four questions for them to answer as a part of their 20 to 30 second testimonials.

Create ‘before and after’ videos. If you have property renovation projects, an awesome ‘before & after’ video is a great way to show your clients the quality of work you could offer them.

SEO Tips for your Real Estate Video Marketing Campaign

Don’t forget to come up with a good video title and description. You would want to be verbose and make sure you include your keywords

Complete all the information available including a full description, address and all keywords that relate to your property.

Don’t forget to associate the videos to your sitemap. If you are hosting video content in your site, then make sure web crawlers will able to index the video filled pages as well as its information. A video sitemap is used to identify and tag videos in your site. Your sitemap should include the video file, its thumbnail image, the title and description.

You don’t need a huge investment to make it big on Youtube. A video camera (I love the Flip, but you could use your I Phone) and computer are all you need to jumpstart your video marketing campaign.

Visit Investing Now Network for more real estate investing and social media tips.